Mountain biking is hard...

[Crankin]

I like that pink jersey.
The scenery looks pretty awesome, too.

[Veronica]

That is my favorite shirt for mountain biking this winter. It's an an Ibex Indie and it's just the right weight, keeps me warm even when I'm sweaty.

Veronica

[Veronica]

Today we rode from Black Diamond Mine Regional Park to Clayton - the base of Mt Diablo and back - 11.5 miles, 2400 feet of climbing. There were some pretty "interesting" sections of trail, one very steep, very rutted descent, with the ruts running diagonally across the trail. I was kind of inching my way down and had not picked a great line - I'm not sure there was one! In retrospect, I'm amazed I didn't get off and walk it, but I didn't even consider it. About halfway down, I just let the bike go, I could see I would have some run out.

I'm definitely not ready to add climbing Diablo to this route yet. That will double the mileage and double the climbing, but I'm really glad we scoped it out. No pictures, we were too busy riding today. We had some nice views from the top of the ridge line out over the Delta.

Veronica

[Veronica]

Sunday's ride was short, just 6.75 miles and just over 1,000 feet of climb and descent. I wasn't feeling great so I didn't want to work very hard. We took the easiest possible route up to the ridge. There really is no "easy" way to climb 1000 feet in 3 miles, but some are less stupid steep. The ridge itself is really quite narrow, so every way up has some ridiculous bit near the top. Yesterday's route had an 18% section for a little more than a tenth of a mile. AND, it's the "easy" way. There is one single track trail at Black Diamond that is bike legal - Corcoran Mine. It's 3/4 of a mile long with an average grade of 18%. We decided to go down that way yesterday. I had never gone down it before. Years ago we had gone up it with our bikes, walking much of it. Down is a lot more fun. It was almost all rideable - except for one tenth of a mile that my Garmin says had an average grade of 43%. It was like walking down the side of a cliff. It was all exposed rock with ledges, holes and ruts. It's the kind of terrain that the bike needs some speed to get over, but at the bottom of it is a sandy narrow switchback. I doubt I'll ever ride that bit. But the rest is great for working on single track skills. It's rooted and rocky with some exposure - really quite nice.

Veronica

[Veronica]

We went out for more fun at Black Diamond yesterday and today. I finally conquered the Old Homestead Trail. The final pitch is 16% average grade for three tenths of a mile. We had been up it twice before and both times I had to stop before the top. I was pretty giddy to finally make it. One nemesis down, several still to go.

Veronica

[Wahine]

I love it!! Good work.

This weekend I went back out to an area that I haven't been to in 2 years and I was amazed at the improvement in my skill level in that time. Sometimes it's hard to see the changes when you're riding in the same areas frequently. It's always fun to see yourself improving and mountain biking is great for that.

Have fun out there.

[ElizabethWaland]

Wow! I'd like to do that someday. Nice view. I've tried biking cross country but never that difficult. I'll give it a shot before I get home.

[Veronica]

We were off the bikes for a few weeks. The last weekend in January we went for a hike to do some recon for future biking. The first two weekends of February we had rain. Presidents' Day weekend Thom's folks were here visiting, but we went anyway. They walked around the reservoir while we rode for abut an hour - 6.3 miles with 830 feet of climbing. Because of all of the rain the cows have really chewed up the trails. It's like riding in a rock garden. It makes all that climbing more work! I'm really glad I have a fully suspended bike now.

Yesterday we went out to Round Valley to find someplace a little flatter to ride. It's about a mile and a half out to the valley which has a three mile loop. We did the loop three times. Thirteen miles and only 530 feet of climbing. We were going to head from Round Valley up towards Morgan Territory, the trail we had reconned in January, but the trail was closed on Feb. 4 for Golden Eagle nesting. We discovered that when we got to the trail and saw the closure sign.

Thom did take 120 photos, which we narrowed down to three.



Veronica